Teach english new edition r

■ talked about the difference between live listening and prerecorded extracts, saying 
that whereas live listening allows students to interact with speakers, they cannot 
do this with speakers on audio tracks. Nevertheless, the latter provide ample 
opportunities for hearing speakers of different language varieties.
■ said that students need to hear people speaking in different genres, and that while 
we want them all to hear authentic English, at lower levels this may not be feasible; 
nevertheless, the language they hear should be as much like the ‘real thing’ as 
possible.
■ discussed the fact that students need to be able to deploy different skills for listening 
in order to understand general meaning or, alternatively, to get specific details.
■ provided six principles for listening: listen as often and as much as possible, 
preparation is vital, once may not be enough, students should be encouraged to 
respond to the content of the listening, not just the language, different listening 
stages demand different listening tasks, good teachers exploit listening texts to the 
full.
■ looked at three listening sequences showing how preparation is a major part of the 
sequence, and showing how listening leads on to follow-up tasks.
■ offered a range of other listening genres and activities.
■ discussed where video (or digitally delivered images) fits in, mentioning some video 
techniques and stressing that using video is not an excuse for TV watching.
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Using 
coursebooks
■ Reasons for (and against)
coursebook use
■ Choosing coursebooks
W hen teachers open a page in their 
coursebook, 
they have to decide whether or not they 
should use the lesson on that page with their class. Is the language at the right level? Is the 
topic/content suitable for the students? Are there the right kind of activities in the book? Is 
the sequencing of the lesson logical?
W ith a good coursebook, there is a strong possibility that the language, content and 
sequencing in the book will be appropriate, and that the topics and treatm ent of the 
different language skills will be attractive. As a result the teacher will want to go ahead and 
use what is in the book. If, however, teachers have the time or inclination to amend parts of 
a coursebook (because the texts or activities don’t seem appropriate for a particular group 
of students or a particular lesson, or because they want to tailor the material to match their 
own particular style), they have to decide what to do next.
There are four alternatives to consider if we decide that part of a coursebook is not 
appropriate. Firstly, we m ight simply decide to om it the lesson. That solves the problem of 
inappropriacy and allows us and our students to get on with something else.
There’s nothing wrong with om itting lessons from coursebooks. Teachers do it all the 
time, developing a kind o f ‘pick and choose’ approach to what’s in front of them. However, 
if they om it too many pages, the students may begin to wonder why they are using the book 
in the first place, especially if they have bought it themselves.
Another alternative is to replace the coursebook lesson with one of our own. This has 
obvious advantages: our own m aterial probably interests us m ore than the coursebook and 
it may well be m ore appropriate for our students. If we cover the same language or topic, 
the students can still use the book to revise that particular language/vocabulary. But as with 
om itting pages, if too much of the coursebook is replaced, both students and teacher may 
wonder if it is worth bothering with it at all.
The third option is to add to what is in the book. If the lesson is rather boring, too 
controlled, or if it gives no chance for students to use what they are learning in a personal 
kind o f way, the teacher may want to add activities and exercises which extend the students’ 
engagement
with the language or topic. We are using the coursebooks strengths but 
m arrying them with our own skills and perceptions of the class in front of us.